Along with people in the rest of the country, Harvard residents are feeling the pinch of fuel prices that seem to be spiraling out of sight. The commute to work now takes longer; it costs more to get to the grocery store, and more to buy the food once you get there. It now costs a bundle to heat some of the big homes in Harvard.

And now residents are finding that their biggest investments—those homes—seem to be losing value almost as fast as fuel prices are rising. According to Zillow.com, a real estate website launched in 2006, property values in Harvard have declined about 8.8 percent in the last year. The website www.city-data.com shows a sharper decline. Statistics from the MLS Property Information Network show that the median price of houses sold in Harvard from January to May of this year has dropped from $585,000 for the same period last year to $540,500; the average price of houses sold has dropped from last year’s $622,200 to $571,391.

Rhonda Sprague, owner of Harvard Realty, confirms there has been a steady decline, but cautions against getting too hung-up on statistics.

“Statistics can be manipulated to show whatever you want,” she said, adding that when it comes to looking at stats on real estate sales, you have to consider which houses went into creating that average. “Each house is unique,” she said.

But she acknowledged that there are a lot more houses on the market now than there have been at any one time in the recent past, and they’re staying on the market longer. And, she added, they usually have to be reduced in price before they sell.

Suzanne Dutkewych, of TP Hazel Sotheby’s International Realty, had a different take on it. From her perspective, she said, the local market isn’t drastically different from a year ago, though there has been a downturn in the numbers. But if you look back at what was happening four to five years ago, “prices have definitely come down.”

Dutkewych said things are very busy at the TPH Sotheby’s office right now.

“At this time of year we start to see an influx of buyers, looking to get their kids into the school system by Labor Day,” she said. “And at this time of year, yards are looking their best.”

She said that the average length of time houses are on the market this year is 247 days, compared to an average of 141 days for the same period last year. However, she explained, there are still homes that are selling quickly—usually homes that have recently been updated. She cited one example of a house that was on the market only seven days. And updated homes, she said, are selling closest to the original asking price. For homes that need work, sellers can expect to see them on the market longer, she added, and for those homes “buyers are negotiating more.”

As depressing as it can be to hear news about declining property values, Sprague said, “If you’re not having to sell in this market it’s irrelevant, as along as you can make your mortgage payments.”

She said that people who bought their homes 10 years ago will probably “be OK” if they have to sell their homes now, although they might not get what they could have a year or more ago. It’s more difficult for people who have recently bought here and now have to move because of job changes or other circumstances, she said.

However, Sprague explained, Harvard is no different from other towns in the area.

“Each town is being impacted by this market. It seems bad when it’s your particular town, but all towns are being affected in a similar way,” she said. “There’s nothing unique about Harvard.”

Dutkewych said she thinks there is some “good opportunity” coming up for the real estate market in this area, with Bristol-Myers-Squibb expected to open on Devens in the fall, and IBM coming into Littleton. She said she hopes to see some improvement in the overall market after the election.

According to Dutkewych, the National Association of Realtors speculates that when members of the “echo boom” generation—children of the baby boomers, born between 1980 and 2001—start buying their first homes it will have “a big, positive impact on the market.”

Further, she added, the association says that, despite the [current] slowdown in some markets, real estate is “still a good long-term investment.”